Sunderland's fight to survive will be over if they are beaten at Birmingham this afternoon.

Sunderland's fight to survive will be over if they are beaten at Birmingham this afternoon. Paul Gilder looks back on a bleak week for Wearside.

WITH up to 83 redundancies, debts of &#xA3;26m, nine straight league defeats, three managers, 15 unwanted players and only 19 points on the board, playing the numbers game has not been a happy hobby of late at the Stadium of Light.

Four seasons in the Premiership are likely to come to an end unless Sunderland can take three points at St Andrew's this afternoon.

With the club's financial problems rising by the day, the human price to be paid for tumbling out of the top flight was brought home in depressing fashion as Wearside awoke on Wednesday morning.

"The announcement was a major disappointment to us all," said a glum Kevin Kilbane, reflecting on the news that as many as 83 club staff will find themselves out of work this summer as a result of a season of struggle on the pitch.

"Ultimately, our performances as players have cost people their jobs and we have all got to shoulder the blame. That is hard to take, it isn't a nice thing for any of us to have to think about. It is very difficult.

"These are staff, many of whom the public never see, who have been doing their jobs tremendously well for a number of years.

"But these are the people who find themselves out of a job and everybody has found that a difficult thing to come to terms with this week."

The considerable disappointment has been etched on the faces of the downcast players since Wednesday's announcement.

Mick McCarthy met his team the following morning to implore them to keep smiling. In reality, though, it hasn't been easy to keep the spirits up.

"People are very sad, very angry and very upset - justifiably so - and that concerns me," said a manager who needs to lift his team this afternoon as they attempt to avoid setting a new club record of 10 successive defeats in league football.

McCarthy, who insists that his eyes were wide open when he took the job last month, has got to stay positive.

Yet he knows that, despite the unwavering support of Sunderland fans, a sizeable dose of dissatisfaction will be aimed in the direction of his highly paid players in the coming months.

"The playing staff reflect everything," said the former Republic of Ireland coach.

"They bask in the glory when things are going well but, when they are going wrong, it is unfortunate that a lot of other people have got to pay the price. I feel really sorry for everybody who is suffering as a result of all this."

It would be wrong to suggest that an improvement in Sunderland's fortunes on the pitch could ever compensate for that suffering. But, in the eyes of Kilbane, the events of a traumatic week will give the players extra motivation in the West Midlands this afternoon.

"These things have got to spur us on," said the midfielder. "We have got to try and give ourselves some pride back, we have got to give the supporters some pride back and we have got to get rid of this losing mentality.

"Things could be settled this weekend but I think that, even if it (relegation) doesn't happen, we will only be delaying the inevitable. We have just got to go there, relax and enjoy the kind of football we know we can play.

"It is frustrating that the good performances have been too few and far between this season. We owe the fans one now."

Debt-ridden and depressed, sinking Sunderland will be remembered for all the wrong reasons when this season of strife is assessed.

The Black Cats have already set a new mark for the longest losing run in Premiership football, a sequence which stretches back to January 18.

A team who have collected just one point this year still need six more if they are to beat the record low tally set by Watford three seasons ago - and that looks like a tall order. "We proved last week against Chelsea that we can play some good stuff but we just haven't been anywhere near consistent enough," added Kilbane, who has been part of a winning league team just three times all season.

"We haven't consistently been producing those performances and everybody knows that, it is plain to see.

"That's why we're in the position that we are. We need to be turning in those kind of performances week in, week out.

"We will go to Birmingham knowing that if we win then we could put them in a bit of trouble.

"They are struggling to win at the moment and they could be dragged into it. That's all we can do."